I've got my, er, I mean PAUL's 360 streaming from my PC running WMP 11. But when I open the Xbox media section, I see a shit load of stuff that was on my PC months ago, but isn't there now (and I'm sure wasn't even there when I first connected the xbox, bizarrely), and new stuff I've downloaded isn't showing.
Some sort of cache?
The only reference I can find it so press A when the xbox reboots to clear the cache, but that apparently also clears game updates that have been downloaded online, which I don't want to do on pain of death from Paul.
Anyone got any ideas?
UPDATE: Half-way there. My PC WMP is showing old files in the library which it hasn't deleted for some reason. But the new files are there, so no idea why they're not showing on the xbox.
Labels: 360, xbox
Now, there was me thinking a financial services company, regulated, watchdogged, and continually scared of being fined for Enron-esque malpractice, would be .... well, organised. Efficient. Results-focused. etc etc.
Wrong!
Case in point #1. Email client = Lotus Notes. Now, I used this 10-12 years ago, before Outlook really took off, and I hated Lotus then. It's not changed since. Nor has my opinion of it. It sucks, big time. I wanted to forward a calendar invite to someone else today. No can do. I want to refresh - hit F5. Nothing happens. Have to use F9. It's slow. It doesn't recognise NT logins. When I type in my notes-specific password, it shows four Xs for each digit I type. Why? Why wouldn't 1 X do, like every other application. Even random numbers of Xs might be more secure. But four? I still know how many digits is in someone's password, as I can actually divide by 4, and I'm normally pretty accurate.
Case in point #2: NT Logins. My username is a handy 8 digit alphanumeric code. No chance of me ever remembering it. And when I look in a server share to open a doc, I can see it's being read by someone, but if I want to prod that person to see if they've finished reading it, I've got to work out who user "XY4058390" is, rather than seeing something like "fbloggs".
Case in point #3: New project kicking off. I wanted to see the business case docs to give me a feel for the high level objectives. No one knew where to find it. "It's on a share somewhere". Gee. Thanks. That'll be one of the 20-odd shares that I can see when you open My Computer then.
Case in point #4: Same new project. We met the project manager. He wanted to mail us the business case. (Which isn't called a business case, obviuosly). Er. No can do. The 30-40 pages plus a couple of screenshots is too big to go through mail. But you can attach it to a meeting invite and send it. Or alternatively speak to the local IT manager to put it onto a USB data thingy, which are explicitly banned in the company.
Case in point #5: Adobe PDF Reader (or alternative) wasn't installed as standard. So when I searched the corporate intranet for email signature standards (of which there is one, but hardly ANYONE uses it), I couldn't read the nice PDF they had on it. Nor just about anything else, as it pretty much everything gets dumped to PDF if it's an official doc.
Case in point #6: I submitted a helpdesk ticket to get said reader installed. Got a response to say it was. Er. No it wasn't. Did somebody forget to actually check the install worked?
Case in point #7: I went to check the helpdesk status. I did get a nice status line, but given I had about 4 tickets open at that point, it would have been nice for the status update page to give some details of which ticket I was looking at. But no, I have to guess.
Case in point #8: It's really, really quiet. I'm too frighted to have a little fart in case it's too loud. Not like sat either next to the call center guys, or next to the goods in/goods out people one the right, with happy-clappy-sing-out-loud chap behind.
Case in point #9: Everything - and I mean everything is tied down. I go to double-click the windows clock to get a quick calendar. No can do - denied so I can't change the system time. No internet access unless requested....
Case in point #10: Internet access password is NOT your NT password. Nor your notes password. It's something else entirely.
Still, despite the fact that I went into the interview saying "Look, guys, I am an analyst, but it's nothing formal, no standard approach, just powerpoint, excel and visio" (Yes, visio is installed, even though Adobe Reader wasn't....)... so, despite saying all that, I should be able to kick ass....
... as long as they get Outlook real bloody soon.
(Seriously, the job will be alright, it's just the IT infrastructure that'll be a continual PITA).
Labels: work
Here's one to make you laugh.
Thinking I had until 6th May off, I booked a flight via FlyBe to see the folks. Me and the wee one: total cost, £260 (160 of which seems to be taxes).
Then, the job start date came forward to next week, so I phoned FlyBe to see about a refund. I knew the flights were not refundable, but you can refund the taxes.
Ah... but there's an admin fee of £25 per person per sector (whatever that is) of £25.00.
Grand total refund: £2.69.
Like I said. What a fucking scam.
Labels: scams
Like it. Quite a lot. Wasn't sure at first: the first chapter has a nice balance of fighting, "talking quests", and against-the-clock kind of puzzles. But the second "chapter" is VERY talk-heavy. Lots of quests that involve talking to people to find something out, then using that info when talking to someone else. A couple of battles, but not many. And even though I love this sort of game, I was getting a bit of "uh-oh, Biomass have let me down".
But chapter 3 kicked in (well, my chapter 3, since once you get past the second bit, you're in control of a ship and can travel to a number of different planets). So - the place I went to: Another nice balance, but tougher battles now that you know how to fight and your characters are gaining skills. Unfortunately, I've got to the boss.
Now, in most games, the sequence is as follows:
A - player is in a nice safe area
B - move onward, and get a cutscene with the big bad boss who reveals their master plans, twirls their moustaches, laughs manically, strokes their furry white pussy, etc.
C - fight ensues, probably with no save ability since you're currently dodging bullets, and the boss kicks the players ass.
D - player loads the last safe. Gets to point A again. Stocks up on anti-boss special ammo, whips out the big guns, stacks up temporary boosts, etc.
E - run the cutscene again. And here's where it gets interesting.
E - Option 1: Player is given the option of pressing a key to SKIP THE FUCKING CUT SCENE. After all, they've seen it once already.
E - Option 2: There is a second or two's pause before the fight starts, allowing the player a chance to save the game AFTER THE FUCKING CUTSCENE but before the fight.
F - Fight ensues again. If player dies again, they go back to D and can SKIP THE FUCKING CUTSCENE, or E.2, where they've got the save AFTER THE FUCKING CUTSCENE
G - fight ensues, ad nauseam
H - eventually player wins.
As you might have guessed already, Mass Effect goes for E option 3: "Don't allow the player to save after the cutscene, and don't allow them to skip it - make them watch it every fucking time."
And although I've played this on normal difficulty, I've notched back to Easy for this fight, and still get my ass wooped.
This bit of the game SUCKS big time. Someone obviously didn't do a proper UAT on this bit of the game. I'm sick of the fucking cutscene....
Had a quick look at the FAQs etc online, and the advice is "take it steady, and kill the boss's henchmen". Not that easy in practice....
Labels: games, mass effect, xbox
OK, finally, Madjock has buggered off and given, sorry, I mean
loaned, me his Xbox 360 to look after while he's away. And about bloody time too. Jesus, I wondered if he was ever going to leave.
So, here's my thoughts so far.
Assassins CreedA bit like a super model. Beautiful to look at. But not much going on really. I'm only on the second mission, and already I can see how the other 7 are going to turn out. Might not finish this one.
Looks: 100% (stunning in close-up and long-shot)
Originality: 30% (very similar approach to the first "assassin" game on the xbox by the same company - Sam was the agent's name, forget the game name).
Playability: 80% (works well)
Keeping It Interesting: 20% (will get boring real quick)
Halo 3Not too impressed so far. The extra vehicles and devices are nice, but not really ground-breaking. I'll finish it, just to wrap up the story, but I'm not in a rush.
Looks: 70% (pretty good improvement on Halo 2)
Originality: 20% (as compared to Halo 2)
Playability: 80% (if you know Halo 1 & 2, this is the same thing)
Keeping It Interesting: 50% (the story is worth following, but the gameplay is very familiar)
Half-life 2I never quite got around to finishing the original, but I like both that and version 2. I must admit, 10 minutes into the game and getting chased out of a residential building by the masked "police" had my heart-thumping. Then of course later, I realised they can't shoot for toffee and you can take a score of them on with a safety pin and still win. At least on the level I was playing. Still, nice game. I've just gotten the gravity gun, and I've heard that livens things up a bit.
Looks: 60% (nice looking, but nothing particularly special, but then it's a bit older I think than the others)
Originality: 30% (some nice touches, but otherwise a standard FPS)
Playability: 80% (nice pace, short-ish levels, nice frequency of save points)
Keeping It Interesting: 70% (good developing storyline, nice glimpses of things to come, eg you see a tall "War of the Worlds"-like alien strider very early on, but only in long-distance shot)
Mass EffectJust got it. Can't comment. And creaming pants till I can play tonight. The Wee Man has got an eye infection again, so I'm having to look after him today, so no Xbox. BigAndiD is wondering if the alien sex scene was worth the media uproar, which is about par for the course. For Andi, not the media, I mean :-)
Xbox itselfNoisy, bulky. Having not paid attention in the past, I'd assumed it was the fan that was noisy. But it seems to be the DVD player - is that right? Or is it that the fan only kicks in when the DVD starts? Bugger me it's noisy. The Missus was worried about the noise from the TV, but I was more worried about the noise from the box itself.
Labels: games, xbox
